The present invention relates to a device for the per-operative exploration of organs such as veins or arteries or ventricles, of the cardiovascular system of human or animal bodies, in particular to determine the state of functionality of the cardiac valves or valvules.
The most serious operations, because of their consequences for the rest of the human or animal body, require a systematic control of the quantity of surgical intervention. Thus, in the case of cardiac interventions, after aortaplasty or replacement of the aortic valve by a homograft, a pulmonary autograft or a heterograft without a prop, it is necessary, to appreciate the quality of the surgical work, to provide a transesophagal echograph (TOE) after reclosing the aortotomy and stopping the extracorporeal circulation (ECC). Because of this, when there is detected an imperfection in the work of the surgeon, it is necessary to provide a new aortotomy and to replace an ECC device.
The object of the present invention is thus to provide a device for per-operative exploration of veins, arteries or ventricles of the cardiovascular system of human or animal bodies, which permits appreciating, at any moment during the procedure, the quality of the work carried out by the surgeon.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for per-operative exploration of veins or arteries or ventricles of the cardiovascular system of the human or animal body, whose design permits testing the sealing of the valvuloplasties, of the prostheses, of the native valves, to appreciate the quality of the coaptation of the sigmoids and to detect and analyze an imperfection of a prop so as to remedy it immediately.
To this end, the invention has for its object a device for per-operative exploration of organs, such as veins or arteries, in particular of the aorta or ventricles, of the cardiovascular system of the human or animal body, in particular to appreciate the condition of operation of the cardiac valves, or the valvules, or the stents, or the prosthetic tubes, characterized in that it is constituted by an elongated hollow body, such as a tube, made of a sealed material, preferably transparent, said body delimiting a cavity in which can be disposed, permanently or temporarily, optical display means, such as a camera, said cavity being open into and/or into the vicinity of, one end of the hollow body, this open end of the hollow body, adapted to be introduced through an opening of the organ to be explored, being shaped to be able, directly or by means of at least one suitable securement member, to connect, in a substantially sealed manner, the body to the organ, such that the cavity of the hollow body and the interior of the organ form a common chamber at least partially closeable by a cardiac valve, a valvual and/or by a closure member provided in the organ, this hollow body comprising, preferably opposite the open end of the body, at least one supplemental opening opening into said cavity of the body for the introduction into said cavity of the hollow body a liquid under pressure permitting, in the condition introduced into the body in an organ, an increase of the pressure prevailing within the organ so as to facilitate the possible functional exploration of it.
Thanks to this design of the device, it is possible, at any moment during the intervention and in several seconds, to verify the quality of the work of the surgeon, to test the possible sealing of the cardiac valves, or the valvules, the position of the valves, or of the valvules, by the naked eye.
Moreover, because of this design, such a device does not necessarily require, for the surgeon, to modify the aortotomy as it is conventionally practiced. Thus, in the case in which the aorta is at least partially sectioned, the hollow body is simply ensleeved axially within the arterial passage or the vein.
According to a first preferred embodiment of the invention, the hollow body comprises, over its periphery, in the region for connection to an organ to be explored, at least one continuous or discontinuous external circumferential swelling and/or recess, arranged to form respectively at least one portion of a swelling or trough, which swelling and/or trough coact with the securement member of the device to ensure a connection, in particular a sealed ensleeving of the body in the organ to be explored and to prevent any sliding of the body out of the organ to be explored.
According t o a second embodiment of the invention, the hollow body comprises over its periphery a ring mounted slidably on said body to come, when the open end of the hollow body is introduced through an opening of a ventricle within this latter, to bear against the external periphery of the opening provided in the ventricle and to ensure, in cooperation with the walls of the ventricle, a substantially sealed connection between the hollow body and the ventricle.